(PEPOAZA TYRANT.)
+Tænioptera nengeta+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 459 (Paraná);
_Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 42; _Barrows, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl._
viii. p. 137 (Entrerios); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 603
(Misiones).
_Description._--Above cinereous; lores white; wings black, coverts
cinereous; a well-marked speculum at the base of the primaries and
the edgings of the outer secondaries white; tail black, tipped
with whitish cinereous, basal one-third of tail white; below pale
cinereous, middle of throat white, with blackish stripe on each
side; middle of belly, flanks, crissum, and under tail-coverts
white; bill horn-colour; feet black: whole length 9·0 inches, wing
5·0, tail 3·5. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ S.E. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentine Republic, and Bolivia.
To this species Azara gives the name of _Pepoazá_, the Guarani for
Barred-wing; and _Pepoaza_ was used by him as a generic name for
the small, well-defined group now placed in the genus _Tænioptera_,
comprising eight known species. Most of these birds have some
conspicuous wing-mark. They inhabit the southern portion of the
South-American continent, from South Brazil and Bolivia to the Straits
of Magellan, and are most numerous on the open pampas and in Patagonia.
In size they do not vary greatly, the largest being about nine inches
long, the smallest about seven. In colour they are grey, or, more
frequently, white relieved with black or grey, one species (_T.
rubetra_) being rufous. Their legs are long, and they run on the ground
like _Myiotheretes rufiventris_, feeding, to some extent, in the same
manner; but they also occasionally pursue and capture insects on the
wing, like the typical Tyrant-birds that seldom or never alight on
the ground. They have likewise another and unique preying-habit,
intermediate between the Plover-like habits of _Agriornis_,
_Myiotheretes_, and _Muscisaxicola_, and the Swallow- or Flycatcher-like
habits of the true Tyrants. The bird perches itself on an elevation--the
summit of a stalk, or bush, or even of a low tree--to watch like a
Flycatcher for its insect prey; only instead of looking about for
passing insects, it gazes intently down at the ground, just as a
Kingfisher does at the water, and when it spies a beetle or grasshopper,
darts down upon it, not, however, to snatch it up with the bill as other
Tyrants do, but it first grasps it with its feet, then proceeds to
despatch it, swaying about and opening its wings to keep its own
balance, just as an Owl is seen to do when it grasps a mouse or other
small animal in its claws. After devouring the insect on the spot, it
flies back to its perch to resume the watch. They are very restless,
active, playful birds, and seldom remain long on one spot, apparently
finding it irksome to do so; but I have seen the _T. irupero_ occupy
the same perch for hours every day while looking out for insects.
As an English generic name for this small interesting group might be
useful, I would suggest _Ground-gazers_ or _Ground-watchers_, which
describes the peculiar preying-habit of these birds.
The Pepoazá is a swift, active, graceful bird, with a strong, straight
beak, hooked at the point, and a broad tail four inches long, the total
length of the bird being nine inches. The throat and space between the
beak and eye are white; all the rest of the body, also the wing- and
tail-coverts, light grey; tail and wing-quills black, with a pure white
band across the base of the primaries. The tertiaries and rectrices are
tipped with pale rufous grey.
It inhabits Brazil south of the equator, Bolivia and Paraguay, also the
northern provinces of the Argentine Republic. Mr. Barrows gives the
following account of its lively habits in Entrerios:--"They are commonly
seen perched on fences or the tops of bushes or trees in open ground,
frequently making sallies for winged insects, or dropping to the ground
to catch a grasshopper or worm. When shot at while perched and watching
you, they almost invariably leave the perch at the flash, pitching
forward and downward, and usually evading the shot, even at short range.
Several times I have secured them by shooting about a foot below and two
feet in front of them as they sat, but they do not always fly in this
direction. The rapidity of their flight when frightened, or when
quarrelling, is simply astonishing. I have seen one chase another for
three or four minutes, doubling, turning, twisting, and shooting, now
brushing the grass, and now rising to a height of at least two or three
hundred feet, and all the movements so rapid that the eye could scarcely
follow them; and at the end of it each would go back to the top of his
own chosen weed-stalk, apparently without a feather ruffled."
Azara found this species breeding in a hole in a bank; and Mr. Dalgleish
has described a nest, taken from a tree in Uruguay, as a somewhat slight
structure, four inches in diameter, formed of sticks and fibres,
lined with fine grass and a few feathers. It contained three eggs,
pear-shaped, white, with large well-defined spots of reddish brown.